Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Someone says on Twitter that these things seem to be happening a little more lately and he asked if hate crime legislation is not essential. Are the LGBTQ community expected to be trained in martial arts in order to protect themselves? Should this not have serious consequences?

I am aware that a strategy was published by the Minister's Department. I had a conversation about hate crime legislation in this House last year or two years ago, and I have raised it numerous times. A particular moment struck me in this House, it was one that I did not enjoy, when I was told that we did not need hate crime legislation in Ireland because we did not have a problem with such crime. It was a Minister in the Minister for Justice and Equality's own Department who said that. Is the Government committed to legislating or bringing forward such hate crime legislation before the general election? If we had started the process two years ago when we made these calls, we might have the ability to tackle this issue. At the moment people are feeling very much empowered in their homophobia, racism and sexism.